them possible in Natal or the
Cape, on which rising Kruger staked his hope of success in the struggle.
As for the Transvaal Boers, the only part they have in the war is to
fight for their independence, which was never threatened until they
invaded British territory, and thus compelled the Queen's Government to
defend it.

"The only alternative left to England to refuse fighting would have been
the ground that all war is wrong; but as neither England nor any other
nation has ever taken this Christian ground, there was in reality no
alternative. Is it fair to stigmatise England as endeavouring to crush
two small and weak nations because they have been so small in wisdom and
weak in common sense as to become the tools of the daring and crafty
autocrat who has decoyed both friend and foe into this war?--I am, with
high esteem, thy friend,--JOHN BELLOWS."

It does not come within the scope of this treatise to deal with the
case of the Uitlanders, but I have given the foregoing, because it is a
clear and concise statement of that case, and because it expresses the
strong conviction that I and many others have had from the first, that
the worst enemy the Boers have is their own Government. A Government
could scarcely be found less amenable to the principles of all just Law,
which exists alike for Rulers and ruled. These principles have been
violated in the most reckless manner by President Kruger and his
immediate supporters. The Boers are suffering now, and paying with their
life-blood for the sins of their Government. Pity and sympathy for them,
(more especially for those among them who undoubtedly possess higher
qualities than mere military prowess and physical courage,) are
consistent with the strongest condemnation of the duplicity and
lawlessness of their Government.

* * * * *

The Rev. Charles Phillips, who has been eleven years in South Africa,
has given his opinion on the native question.

It was part of the Constitution of the Transvaal that no equality in
Church or State should be permitted between whites and blacks. In Cape
Colony, on the contrary, the Constitution insisted that there should be
no difference in consequence of colour. Mr. Phillips enumerates the
oppressive conditions under which the natives live in the Transvaal.
They may not walk on the sidepaths, or trade even as small hucksters, or
hold land. Until two years ago there was no marriage law for the blacks,
and that which was then passed was so bad--a Ј3 fee being demanded for
every marriage, with many other difficulties placed in the way of
marriage--that the missionaries endeavoured to procure its abolition,
and to return to the old state of things. No help is given towards the
education of native children, though the natives pay 3 per cent. of the
revenue, the Boers paying 7-1/2, and the Uitlanders 89-1/2. The natives
have, therefore, actually been helping to educate the Boer children. "In
1896," says Mr. Phillips, "only Ј650 was granted to the schools of those
who paid nine-tenths of the revenue, Ј63,000 being spent upon the Boer
Schools. In other words, the Uitlander child gets 1s. 10d., the Boer
child Ј8 6s. 1d. The Uitlander pays Ј7 per head for the education of
every Boer child, and he has to provide in addition for the education of
his own children."

* * * * *

The following extract is from a more general point of view, but one
which it is unphilosophical to overlook.

The _Christian Age_ reproduces a communication from an American
gentleman residing in the Transvaal to the New York _Independent_.

"The Boers," Mr. Dunn says, "are, as a race--with, of course, individual
exceptions--an extraordinary instance of an arrested civilisation, the
date of stoppage being somewhere about the conclusion of the seventeenth
century. But they have not even stood still at that point. They have
distinctly and dangerously degenerated even